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Tag: conference

Calling level 89 conference wizards…

Sure you can have a great time if you simply attend the PAX gaming conference… but what if you could actually play it? That is question a group of guys and girls asked themselves on the 18 hour drive from St Louis to Boston where PAX East is held. And a question they wanted to answer.

They came up with an idea to use the local web to turn PAX into an actual RPG game. You start by posting your character info in /The.PAX.RPG and then you can earn experience and items by doing various quests, which are also part of the local web. Players on /PAXRPG.Swag.of.Destiny are looking to collect certain items of swag given out by vendors at the event. Other attendees are posting shots to /PAXRPG.High.Score.Towers of the best scores they have gotten at selected demo games. Not only is this a fun meta-game to play at PAX, but it forces you to really get around the venue and see and do some things you may have missed.

Even the action at /PAXRPG.Slay.the.Line.Beast is intense as attendees will post which line they are in and if they are accepting challenges. Other PAX RPG players can challenge them face to face using dice, cards, rock-paper-scissors or any other type of game. The results are posted to the ‘slash’. It’s a fun distraction while waiting in line for some of the major events.

This type of organization can only happen on the local web. “Slashes” are as easy to create as typing in URL and easy to disseminate as well. Players don’t need to download some new app since the local web only requires a web browser. Sure, /The.PAX.RPG is not a well oiled machine but that is part of the charm. It’s a mostly spontaneous flow of creativity and good will that is localized to this event. It’s the type of thing that can come about on the local web when you get a bunch of like minded people together in the same place, and give them the right tools to make some magic.

Note: PAX is not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

Alone together

Even if you are going with a group, it can be hard to stay together when there is so much to see and do at major conferences like PAX. If your buddies can’t get tickets and you are going solo to PAX, that doesn’t mean you will have no one to chill with. In fact, you are probably already part of one of the largest groups there, those who are going solo.

If you are headed to PAX by yourself or lose your group of friends, then just check out or post on /solo.at.pax. There you will find other solo PAX’ers looking for some tabletop action or just someone to wait in line with. The impromptu meetup on /solo.at.pax is one of the best opportunities to meet some new people. Don’t feel like eating alone? Post when you would like to grab lunch to /solo.at.pax and you can quickly get some company going.

And when the festivities are over, there is no need to go back to your hotel by yourself and watch TV. One of the biggest parties is from the folks on /solo.at.pax who are all meeting up at FiRE + iCE for drinks and food.

Despite thousands of attendees all around you, if you go alone you can feel alone. But thanks to the local web other soloists can find each other and at least dispel that ‘feeling alone’ part.

Note: PAX is not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

An AMA for those in the room

PAX is a huge video game conference with no shortage of events, panels and other craziness to experience. It can all be quite overwhelming. Sure they have their own app you can download, but who really wants another app on their overstuffed homescreens.

That’s why many panel organizers have turned to the local web as a quick and dirty way to connect the room. At the Penny Arcade Q&A in the main room, Gabe and Tycho just put up a sign with the local web URL, localweb.is/pennyarcade.qa, for people in the room to communicate on. It’s sort of like a subreddit, just without the voting and only accessible to people in and around PAX. If you went to /pennyarcade.qa while you were in Chicago, it would still exist but it wouldn’t be active. You really need to be where PAX is to see what people are saying.

In that slash, conference goers are asking questions for Gabe and Tycho to answer and attendees are also talking to each other. They are having debates, making friends and making plans.

All the activity in /pennyarcade.qa causes it to rise to the top of the frontpage which lists the most active slashes in the area. Other people at PAX just checking the local web can see that something is going on in /pennyarcade.qa and maybe they should be there. For the few days of PAX, the front page of the local web acts as a barometer of what is popular and interesting, at that very moment.

Note: PAX or Penny Arcade are not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

If Link is your favorite video game character you really don’t want to miss any Link cosplay at the event. Others at PAX are taking photos of Link cosplay they see and posting to instagram and twitter, but the real magic is when they post to /wheres.link on the local web. On /wheres.link you can find all the Link cosplay to be found at PAX and people are discussing and asking questions of the players. “Slash wheres Link” becauses a pop-up community for all the Link fans at PAX. By posting on /wheres.link all the Link cosplayers become…well… linked… and decide to get together for a massive Link photo shoot at noon on Saturday. This becomes an historic event and /wheres.link shoots to the top of the front page of the local web. Others at PAX see it at the top and get hyped about the photo shoot and being in the presence of 100+ Links.

This event wasn’t listed on the PAX website, or mobile app. It wasn’t on a schedule or attached to a twitter hashtag. It was the product of the type of organic community that can happen on the local web.

The first step to getting an instant community like this is to bring people together in the same place, which PAX has done. But the local web allows people to find others with similar interests and interact and organize. No app needed except a web browser. /wheres.link wasn’t in planning for months before PAX. It happened when one person posted a photo of Link to the url localweb.is/wheres.link. One Link fan browsing the local web noticed it and thought it was a cool idea so posted a photo too. Then another.

There is a sense of spontaneity and DIY attitude that is missing from our current online life. We have tons of apps with narrow and carefully curated experiences, but few opportunities to break out of those boxes and do what we want, whatever it is.

The local web as far as social media goes is a sandbox experience. It is what you make of it, whether that is for gathering 100 Links together into the most epic of photos… or any of the other 248 uses currently listed here.

And we are just getting started.

Note: PAX is not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.